Abbie at Play!: More on The Beadwork Journal!

Monday, November 24, 2008

More on The Beadwork Journal!

I've already featured Robin Atkins' "Beadlust" blog and "The Bead Journal Project" (BJP) before, but I just saw a new post and I can't stop raving about them. :)

This week, Robin featured on her blog three more members of The BJP, and I'd just like to show some snippets of their journal work...

First, Robin features Christy H, a mother and grandmother.

Her journal "entries" portray different aspects of her life, and I'm just fascinated at how they translate to beadwork, just like I would translate mine onto a sandtray, or crayons and pastels!

Below is Christy H's February entry, "~ Memories & Dreams ~", which portrays relationships that claimed her heart in the past, and her heart dreams for the future...

This one, below, is entitled "~ Little Christy ~" and features a sea turtle, for her love of the sea and yellow/orange colors for the exuberance and joy of her childhood.

* - * - * - * - *
Robin also featured Lunnette HH. She relates that she (Robin), Christy and Lunette get together nearly every Tuesday afternoon to stitch and bead, and "have the most wonderful, comfortable, quiet, appreciative and non-competitive relationship." Isn't that a wonderful description of a truly nourishing friendship?

Lunette's September journal entry features her extended family, with lots of subtle meanings to the way she's embellished the photos and her fabric selections...

In November, Lunette beaded and quilted a piece that honors her love for quilting and two of her quilting buddies...
If any of you like to sew, bead, or work in other ways with fabrics and stitching, this would be a great alternative to journaling with crayons and colored pencils!

1 comment:

RobinDecember 8, 2008 at 12:30 PM
So nice to see you feature this work! And I'm lovin' your blog!!! Hugs, Robin
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The Inner Self Communicates With Us Through Our Art

"For a person who works improvisationally most of the time, it may surprise you to know that art for me is about visual communication. The odd thing is that the communication is first and foremost from my heart to me. It's my inner, hidden self which speaks through the work of my hands.
The less I try to control the outcome; the less I fuss with "getting it right," the less I'm concerned about making art, the more of my truth is revealed. And when my truth comes out in the open, conveyed in my beadwork, I feel a great sense of wholeness, connection, and satisfaction."

--- Robin Atkins, bead artist

This is what I learned: that everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say. Everybody is talented because everybody who is human has something to express. Everybody is original, if she tells the truth, if she speaks from herself. But it must be from her true self and not the self she thinks she should be.

So remember these two things: you are talented and you are original. Be sure of that. I say this because self-trust is one of the very most important things in writing....

-Brenda Ueland, If You Want to Write

The Voyage to a Place Inside Oneself

For a voyage to a destination, wherever it may be, is also a voyage inside oneself; even as a cyclone carries along with it the center in which it must ultimately come to rest.

At these moments I think not only of the places I have been to but also of the distances I have traveled within myself without a friend or ship; and of the long way yet to go before I come home within myself and within the journey.

And always when the curtains are lifted, the night is without, peering in steadily and constantly, with the light of the stars far beyond.

- Laurens van der Post, Venture to the Interior

Brother of the Sun and of Time

Let me hold your story
and fill my hands
with new sensations
that I've never seen before
which have never existed
which I couldn't have understood
without your song.
They bear your name
and trace out a road.
Let me take with me
a piece of our time together
and savour the warmth
a friend leaves behind.

Brother of the sun and of time
who cares what colour the wind is?
We are joined by the taste of a
dream.
Of being hand in hand
holding
a small piece,
a bit of a world
where you are allowed
to walk at your own pace,
to feel what you feel
and, although different,
to sing your own song

Let me take your conscience
and leave taking with me
the certainty
that although we are different
we're alike
That the heart beats
to the same beat
but your form
creates a new rhythm
Let me learn your music
and enrich my world
with the look of your eyes
and to find in your soul
a new home.

Brother of the sun and of time
who cares what colour the wind is?
We are joined by the taste of a
dream.

--- song by Margarita Boom
(see related post, A Beautiful Song of Friendship)